A Garden Down Under

It has been some time since I wrote. I have been so busy with doing for others that I have not had time.

Our garden has taken a lot of work getting it back up to growing point again. We were inundated by weeds - the heat and rain over summer was the culprit. We would not keep up with them so let them run rampant. Big mistake.. Now we will have to contend with weeds again next year and and.....

The cooler weather has at last come. We had our first frost on Monday morning. We woke to a very chilly morning but as the day wore on it became beautiful. The deciduous trees have coloured well - not that we have a lot here as our autumn and winter is not long enough or cold enough for a good display. We appreciate what colour we get with out liquid amber and maples that we have on our property.

Our citrus trees have started to colour up well. I can hardly wait to be able to have our own oranges, lemons, mandarines and lemonades. Nothing like freshly squeezed juice first thing in the morning. Home grown fruit and vegetables always taste better than store bought produce.

I like the cooler weather it is great, very invigourating. The garden is better at this time of the year - less upkeep and the bugs tend to leave things alone in the cool. The grass is also slowing down. No need to mow every week now. The boys and myself collected a lot of the cut grass and put it in the chook pen. I am looking forward to removing it and mulching the garden with it in a couple of weeks.

We have had to take the garden easy. It was so overgrown with pumpkins and weeds that it looked very daunting. We inched our way through the jungle and have not got it mostly under control and replanted. The winter vegies are starting to take off. Some of the left overs from summer are just hanging in. The frost has nearly put paid to the pumpkins but that won't worry the nearly mature pumpkins much. The trouble will be finding them amongst the weeds and grass. I have picked a lot of pumpkins already and will have to harvest the rest. They keep well which is great and we should have enough to last us till next season, hopefully.

The brassicas I have planted are now powering away. The grubs did attack the early ones I put in but they have recovered remarkably. I find the grubs and pick them off which is a slow process but works. I hate sprays and will not use them unless I really have to.

If everything I have planted grows we will be able to feed an army. We do have family near and have lots of friends. I love the challenge of growing things. There is noting more special than planting a row of seeds and watching them come up - to thickly of course - and transplanting the seedlings out.

Must close. Keep gardening and keep smiling.

Posted by betty at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Dish of fruits and vegetables - treasure from the garden.

Over the Christmas period, we, as a large extended family, have consumed a large amount of food and juice. The preparation of food did take some time but as with all good families the load was shared and it made the task a lot easier.
Simple food if often the best - freshly cut tomato with onion and cucumber with herbs and a dressing, freshly pulled corn just steamed with some butter on top - a bean salad not to mention the large green salads and the chat potatoes that had been dug out of the garden some time earlier. Dessert was often just fruit which is in abundance at Christmas time - watermelon, grapes, mangos, cherries and stone fruits all made such a wonderful platter. Looking at a table set forth with all this fresh food lovingly prepared made Christmas all the more special to all of us.

Having the family together over this period was a great blessing, just being able to spend some time with distant families. Our greatest pleasure was being able to get together to spend time together as a family over the dinner table and of course just being together and catching up with the time we were apart. Time just vanished quickly and the time they were staying with us just went.

Growing your own vegetables makes the preparation of food so much more special as well. I feel so blessed with what I am able to produce from our garden. At the moment is looks very sad - devoid of many vegetables and the weeds have eventually beaten me for the moment but it is not beyond getting straightened up again for the next planting. Coming into the Autumn is my favourite time of the gardening year. I think this is so because summer is quite devastating in the garden and the next season gives me hope again.

On the positive side of my garden the climbing beans are doing well and the pumpkins have been growing well and have fruited. I picked a barrowful of pumpkins the other day and with the rain that we have had in the past couple of weeks has made the vines shoot once again and with a bit of luck they may fruit again. They will hold over quite a long period and see us through most of the coming year.

Apart from a few tomato plants that have survived and the basil and chillies and onions and leeks that are still growing well there is little else in the garden. I have dried some tomatoes, and basil, the chillis have been pickled. I still have a large dish of tomatoes that I plan to cook and freeze down for tomato sauce for lasagna or spaghetti. There is usually a bit to do with the produce grown. It make gardening so much worth the effort.

My chooks had an influx of weeds that we pulled out of the garden the other day. Weeds, as in 2 foot high ones and growing bigger if let. This time they had not seeded which was good as I may break the cycle a bit. ha, ha..
They have been mulched down well by the chooks along with the barrows full of lawn clippings. I am planning to put some fresh sawdust in the pens as well to increase the volume. The chooks do lead a good life and love the attention we give them. The floor of the pens are continually added to and kept clean. All this has been in mind for the garden as we will take it back as compost to the garden for our new plantings. My method of a compost heap.

This compost has made the soil just so good that it does not need much digging now and is so friable. We have been working on it over the years though and are now reaping the rewards of our hard work.

Posted by betty at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Summer has hit with a vengence. Australia is notorious for hot summers. We have been having lots of storms with hail and rain and the weather has been relatively cool and I could have liked it if that had continued for a bit longer even though the hail and wind did cause some damage - it was patchy and did not really affect us too much. The past few days have been hot and dry and the heat has set in. Well over 38deg.C. It has been doing a lot to the garden and it is starting to look like a summer garden already. I missed watering some tiny lettuce plants for two days and these just curled up and died - well nearly all of them. I managed to resurect about 4 plants. The beetroot seeds were just germinating and of course water is essential in getting these up and I think they may have faced the same fate.

Apart from the negatives the garden in general is liking the heat, the cucumbers are growing fast along with the zucchini and summer squash. I have picked quite a lot of beans and the tomatoes are starting to turn in colour. The birds are still with us - they are lovely rosella parrots. Pretty birds but...... Along with all of this the weeds are growing quicker than the vegetables.

The mulch have put on the garden earlier has kept the moisture in the soil and kept the plants reasonably cool in the roots. I have had to water this week but it was not too bad. Another blessing with the mulch I have put on the beds previous years has helped the soil become a more managable soil along with being full of nutrients. With the rain we have been having previously it would have made the ground very boggy - This year it is wet but not that wet that you sink up to you ankles if you venture off the path. The paths I have mulched each year with sawdust or grass which has built up the fertility of the soil.

Over the next few weeks from December to March it is the worst time for gardening where we live. The summers can be hot, unpredictable with storms and rain (if we are lucky). Over the Christmas period when everyone is around my time spent in the garden is not as much as it should be. It is lovely spending time with the family from away though so it has some compensations. We are also kept busy with preserving fruits, jam making and drying tomatoes etc. I often wonder why I started doing it - seeing everyone enjoy the fuits of my labours is enough thanks. It really makes for an interesting Festive Season I can assure you. So much for a hot Christmas Dinner and Hot Pudding...... Salads and cool food is the order of the day here.

Must fly, I have to check my to do list - my countdown to Christmas. I seem to have so much to do. Keeping the grass cut is a full time job at the moment and I know I have to spend some more time on the rideon this afternoon and cut the front lawn (could you call it that and it is about 9 inches high and in need of a good cut).

Have a happy Christmas and New Year.

Betty.

Posted by betty at 02:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I have been watching one bed of lettuce just being eaten, slowly of course, and was wondering just who was the culprit. The birds have found my tomatoes so I thought they were pecking the lettuce as well, grubs are starting to come into force. I have a kangaroo who is eating the young citrus growth.. Why, when there is 20 acres of nice grass and other things that they could eat do they have to get into the garden..You know the usual difficulties in gardening. At least the possums are not around our home.

I was down in the garden early the other morning and just about stepped on a baby hare which was near the tomato plants and well hidden. Found the culprit at last...I do not know who got the biggest fright as I was not expecting to see anything in the garden. Of course I had nothing to hand with which to hit the pest with and just watched him run through the wire netting that I have round the garden. My only hope now is that he will grow fat and not fit through the wire unless I leave the gate open and give him an open invitation.

Apart from all that I really am prepared to share my garden especially since I do not use poisons. I really like the birds around, my one disappointment is that all the tiny birds have left the garden. They were such workers and did the place over regularly for grubs and insects. The preditory birds, butcher birds, magpies and kookaburras have come around and the littler birds only come when they are well out of the way which is a shame.

It is getting near to Christmas and we will be having a housefull of visitors over this time. The next couple of weeks will be taken up with making a Christmas pudding and cake and doing some other baking of biscuits etc. and getting ready for the visit of the family.
Preparation of jams and preserves are on the agenda as well at the moment. My zucchinis are growing well and are slowly getting ahead of me. I make a pickle with the ones that I cannot use or give away. We prefer it to the cucumber done as bread and butter cucumbers. The chokos are just flowering so these also grow in great number just like zucchinis. (Now is the time that all my visitors have to go home with something out the the garden - usually some zucchinis, chokos and cucumbers) Of course everyone else who has a garden has the some problem of over production so it can become a problem of giving it away in the end.
I made some Brazillian Cherry jam (a tropical fruit) this week. I can hardly wait for the plums to ripen to get in and make some more plum jam. I use these also in a fruit chutney that I make. Guavas are flowering now and will be fruiting in early autumn. I have a cherry and also a pink guava tree. They are good bearers and produce lots of fruit. Great for stewing, and making jelly .
December through to March are hot months here and the fruit is ripening which means more work bottling and doing something with the excess. Have you tried tomato jam? This is another way to use excess of tomatoes. This year I have more cherry tomato plants growing that I have ever had before. Fortunately the grubs and the birds leave these alone so we should have stacks of these for salads if nothing else.

Enough rambling.

Betty

Posted by betty at 09:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I know summer is nearly here when my zucchinis start to produce in numbers that are hard to contain. I have had enough of broccoli, cabbage and cauli over the past months and have been looking for something different like beans, zucchinis and cucumbers - oh what a mistake!!! These have taken off with the humid weather we have been having. I have to keep an eye on them as they grow so quickly - overnight even to large sizes. Not that I do not like large zucchinis and cucumbers, it is that they take just so much more using......

I was thinking back the other day just when zucchinis, egg plant, capsicum and broccoli came into our way of eating. It must have been well over 30 years ago. The continental, Italian and Chinese influence with cooking is here well and truly in Australia, which I really like as it has given us more scope with the foods that are available in the shops. Beats the old hum drum of English cooking which we were bought up with. Meat and three veg type of food - quite stoggy looking back. Now the scope is endless with all the vegetables that can be grown in home gardens, or can be purchased in the fruit shops. I love trying different recipes with different vegetables and styles of cooking. Mothing like a fresh salad with tomatoes, cucs and things out of the garden to help add the zest into our eating.

I was reading the other day on the internet where in America it said, people do not eat the recommended 5 - 7 serves of vegetables a day let a alone the 3 pieces of fruit. I often wonder just what do they eat...
We have always had plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit (some frozen or tinned of course). Take-aways are not eaten very much by us, availability could be one reason as we live out of town, I suppose it is just what you get raised with as a child that carries through life but there can be a change in our eating habits.

I have a real concern for health of the people around me. We are what we eat - Eating healthily is no harder than eating things that are not good for us - getting round to actually doing something about it is the hard bit. It only takes the first step...

We should all try to change our eating habits for the better, eating more fruits and vegetables, nuts and grains and cutting down on the fats.

Betty

Posted by betty at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Daylight Saving time has just come into effect this month in the State where we live in Australia and will last until April next year. It must be of some benefit to some people - I have yet to find out what..
I hate it....I feel cheated as now I have lost the precious hour that I had in the early morning out in the garden before breakfast. Yes the 24 hours are the same but there seems to be a big difference in how we perceive them.

Early mornings out in the garden are just so glorious and is my special time - the coolness of the day lends itself to getting some needed work in the garden done. It is lovely getting up just as the sun is coming up. Lately we have been having heavy fogs but this usually means a good day when the sun warms up.

My chooks benefit also from me going into the garden early as they need greens - and I manage to get quite a lot from the weeds and tidying up the plants and of course the tops of the vegies that I pick.
The chooks have come accustomed to my giving them a supply before I actually feed them. They do respond in kind with lovely eggs. I sometimes let them out but they have to be watched as they gravitate to the garden of course. Not that there is not any grass for them to pick but they do like cabbage, lettuce etc. so I do prefer to give them their supply in the pen. What is not eaten is mulched down and comes back to the garden when I clean the pens out. It has made the garden soil just so good over the time and now it is a pleasure to dig in it.

Picking the vegetables also for the days is another job that I do. I do not like going down in the heat of the day and getting vegies. This morning I came up with some lovely beetroot which has been put in the pot to cook and will be bottled when it is cold. We like it pickled with vinegar and have it with salads - some of my family like it cooked and hot as a vegetable or made into soup - I do not know where they got this from as I have never cooked it that way myself. Tastes can change though and variety of food is what it is all about. Whatever way, it is a great vegetable! The tops make a nice green cooked for a change as well.

The broccoli that was grown earlier is still bearing well. The main heads, which this year were very large, have gone and now the plants are sending side shoots out in profusion. I came up with a bucketful this morning. I will have to give some of it away but that is not a problem around here. I am going to have to curtail my enthusiasm in planting out so many. The nurseryman gives me a good supply - ask for half a dozen and get a dozen and half ...
and I just cannot bear to throw any away so plant the lot just in case some die...they never do though and consequently the produce keeps coming.

The supply of carrots and parsnips is doing well. Nothing like fresh carrots straight out of the garden. I had been thinning them out as small baby carrots. Just steamed with a little butter or margarine and pepper and they are just YUM... The larger carrots are great for salads and stews etc.
Along with the other vegies I picked this morning I dug a bucket of red Pontiac potatoes. They will be a treat just steamed with sour cream or cottage cheese... or dry baked...

Yes..we do live well out of the garden and I would be lost without being able to spend some part of the day in it.
I think that is the secret of a good garden...spend some time in it daily.. Not that you have to do a lot to keep it in check just consistency ..

Betty.

Posted by betty at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We have been having a drought here in Australia. Not much rain at all over the past few years.
Where we live we have been fortunate enough to get some. We do not have a town supply of water and rely on a dam and tanks connected to the house. Things have changes somewhat over the past couple of weeks- we have had storms nearly every day. the garden has benefited greatly with the rain and humidity.
What else..... WEEDS. These have come on in profusion. It seems the more I pull out the more come in their place. It is my fault to some extent at I have put the weeds that I pulled out earlier into the chook pen and then brought back the compost from there. Needless to say quite a number of seeds survived and hence the result at the moment. It is surprising just how quickly the weeds mature. They only take a day or two and they seem to be big. I am constantly pulling them out. Mulching had helped a bit to contain them and keep them down but I still manage to have a lot that escape.

Coming on to summer I have noticed a particularly troublesome weed - summer grass is starting to come away. It is a real nuisance in the summer as it grows well. Usually beats me in the end and manages to take over quite a bit towards the end of summer.

Enough complaints. Weeds are good in some respects. Great for composting (before they start to seed) and another is that they bring up different nutrients and minerals from deeper down in the soil. I find their root systems are usually larger than a lot of the vegies we grow. I have always said if you cannot grow weeds how can you expect to grow plants. Weeds will grow in good soil ..

Betty.

Posted by betty at 10:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)